Cowboys at Vikings
Sunday, 1 p.m.
Line: Vikings by 3

Brett Favre and Tony Romo began the season as overexposed enigmas: Favre a fading legend turned spotlight hog, Romo a tabloid Lothario more likely to inspire a Carrie Underwood single than engineer a playoff win. Romo has silenced doubters with his best December and January ever, and although Favre’s bigger-than-the-team reputation sparked a late-season drama, no one would be talking about the Vikings in January without him. On the Romo-Favre undercard: two great running games, two excellent defenses and a special-teams battle within the battle.

Cowboys on Offense
The Cowboys rushed for 198 yards last week, but rushing yards will be harder to come by against a Vikings defense that allowed only 87.1 yards per game in the regular season. The Vikings’ front four (Jared Allen, Pat Williams, Kevin Williams, and Ray Edwards) is the best in the N.F.L.; the rookie linebacker Jasper Brinkley (16 tackles in three starts) isn’t as versatile as the injured starter E.J. Henderson, but he benefits from the fact that few offensive linemen can get past the front four to touch him. The Vikings’ secondary is more vulnerable than the front seven. The Cowboys will attack the deep middle with their receivers and Jason Witten. Vikings safeties Madieu Williams and Tyrell Johnson allow too much to happen in front of them: they’ve combined for just one interception and 64 tackles after passes. Those tackles occurred an average of 12.6 yards downfield.


Vikings on Offense
Adrian Peterson is the best all-around running back in the league, but the Vikings’ running game faded in the second half of the season because of poor offensive line play. Guard Steve Hutchinson has been playing through shoulder injuries and reached the Pro Bowl strictly on reputation. Bryant McKinnie is great at times but is pushed around when he’s not minding his technique, which is why Brad Childress benched him against the Panthers. McKinnie can’t afford to have a sloppy game against DeMarcus Ware. Brett Favre is at his best when executing the old-fashioned West Coast offense plays Bill Walsh scribbled on his legal pad: five receivers running short routes, Favre throwing just after he takes his third step from the center. When the line is blocking well, Favre and Peterson lead an unstoppable ball-control offense. When the line breaks down, Favre must complete 10 passes to gain 70 yards, and that’s too much to ask of any quarterback.

Special Teams
Returner Percy Harvin (27.5 yards per return) is so dangerous that many teams squib-kick against the Vikings to keep the ball out of his hands. The average Vikings drive starts at the 32-yard line, the best among the playoff teams. The Cowboys’ kickoff specialist, David Buehler, had three more touchbacks last week after leading the N.F.L. in the regular season. Wade Phillips must decide whether he trusts Buehler enough to kick the ball over Harvin’s head.

Pick: Vikings



Jets at Chargers
Sunday, 4:40 p.m.
Line: Chargers by 7 1/2

The Jets have skated for a month, beating a Colts team that didn’t care and a Bengals team whose one offensive threat was neutralized by the defensive superstar Darrelle Revis. It’s the thin ice of a new day: the Chargers have enough offensive firepower to make Revis a nonfactor, a big-play defense that can exploit any Mark Sanchez rookie mistakes, and special teams that can win the field position and field goal battle.

Chargers on Offense
Darrelle Revis will shut down the Chargers’ top receiver, Vincent Jackson, but Jackson was only targeted for 21 percent of Chargers passes during the regular season. (Chad Ochocinco, by comparison, was thrown 27 percent of Bengals passes, including almost every deep one.) Antonio Gates (79 catches) and Malcom Floyd (45 catches, 17.2 yards per catch) are dangerous downfield threats; LaDainian Tomlinson and Darren Sproles are effective on screen passes, forcing opponents to think twice before blitzing. Norv Turner’s scheme emphasizes play-action deep passes from running formations; the Chargers will protect Philip Rivers with six or seven blockers, neutralizing all but the most creative blitzes. Center Nick Hardwick returned in Week 16 after missing most of the season with an ankle injury. Among centers, only the Colts’ Jeff Saturday is better at reading blitzes and adjusting the blocking assignments. The Chargers’ running game has declined as Tomlinson has aged, but the Chargers still run well enough to convert short touchdowns and sit on leads.

Jets on Offense
The Jets will be able to run against the Chargers, whose interior defense never adjusted to the loss of tackle Jamal Williams in Week 1. The Chargers allow 4.5 yards per rush, and their blitz-first mentality will allow Thomas Jones and Shonn Greene to find open space once they breach the line of scrimmage. The Jets won’t be able to rely exclusively on the run to grind out a win against the high-scoring Chargers, and they will be in trouble if forced to the air. The Chargers’ 3-4 defense is as confusing as anything Rex Ryan can contrive, and linebackers Shaun Phillips (seven sacks) and Shawne Merriman (four) give the Chargers a devastating pass rush from both edges, taking away the rollout plays that worked well against the Bengals.

Special Teams
Darren Sproles averages 24.1 yards per kickoff return and has a 66-yard touchdown on a punt return. Nate Kaeding hasn’t missed a field goal shorter than 40 yards this season and is 3 of 4 beyond 50 yards. Jets punter Steve Weatherford needs heart surgery in the off-season but will play this week. Remember that before making a “kickers are wimps” remark.

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Britain is the oldest industrial country in the world. The Indus­trial Revolution took place first in this country. A century ago Britain was known as the factory of the world. Many goods were manufactured in Britain and then sold all over the world. At that time the British economy was among the strongest in the world. Its standard of living was much higher than that of its European neigh­bours. However, today things are quite different. Soon after the Second World War, Britain not noly gave up its economic hegemony but also suffered a deep loss of its position of industrial leadership. Its per capita GDP had been overtaken by the United tates in 1900, by France and West Germany in 1950 and by Italy in 1960. Between 1950 and 1973, Britain's GDP grew at an average annual rate of 3.0 % . This was lower than that of most of its trading part­ners. Growth was hampered by chronic balance of payments deficits. A country's balance of payments is the difference between the money from exports and the cost of imports. A country is run-fling a balance of payments deficit when the total amount of money it spends on imports is more than the total amount of money it gets from exports. Britain has been running balance of payments deficits for many decades. As a result the British pound has fallen to its lowest level. Britain is no longer able to match the growth rates of other industrialized countries. The term "British disease" is now often used to characterise Britain's economic decline.

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At the general election of 1945 Winston Churchill was heavily de‑feated. The electorate (voters) returned a Labour government. The people had suffered the Blitz, evacuation, rationing and the to­tal technological warfare. They wanted to put the war behind them and as Churchill had symbolized the war effort that meant he too was now past history. The Conservative Party's traditional princi­ples seemed old-fashioned. People did not want Britain to return to the politics of the 1920s and 1930s and hoped that the Labour Party would be able to sort out the problems of the war-torn country. The foundations of the welfare state was laid during these years, provid­ing free medical care for everyone and financial help for the old, the sick and the unemployed. The Bank of England, coal mines, rail­ways and steelworks were nationalized. But these were hard years and rationing was as severe as it had been during the war.

One of the most far-reaching consequences of the war was that it hastened the end of Britain's empire. India gained her independence in 1947, Burma in 1948; Newfoundland joined the Dominion of Canada in 1949; several British colonies in Africa won their inde­pendence. Soon few of Britain's old colonial possessions were left.

The post-war years were not peaceful. In 1950 Britain joined the war of aggression against North Korea. When Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Egyptian President, nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956, British and French forces invaded Egypt. This action was widely condemned at home arid abroad and brought about the fall of Antho­ny Eden. In 1957 Britain's first hydrogen bomb was tested.

In 1951 the Conservatives under Winston Churchill were returned to power. The government held a Festival Exhibition in the newly built Royal Festive Hall on London's South Bank. The Festival was designed tocommemorate the Great Exhibition 100 years earlier and "to demonstrate to the World the recovery of the United Kingdom



from the effects of War in the moral, cultural, spiritual and materi­al fields". More than 8 million people visited the Exhibition.When George VI died in I952, Princess Elizabeth was crowned Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey. Television, the new wonderful invention, enabled the ceremony to be seen by millions of the Queen's subjects.

By the mid-1950s things were definitely looking up. Herold Macmillan, the Conservative prime minister, declared in 1957 that people had "never had it so good": unemployment was low; wages were far higher than they had been before the war though prices had risen very little; and more and more people were buying cars and going on holidays. By the 1960s Britain was one of the world's leading industrial as well as nuclear powers.

The 1960s were the Swinging Sixties, the permissive age. Writ­ers from the north of England wrote about working-class life in a way no one had done before. Northern actors achieved huge success and, in the cinema, directors made British films big box-office at­tractions. Pop music, as it was now called, underwent a revolution when the Beatles became world famous and turned their hometown of Liverpool into a place of pilgrimage. As a result of a relaxation of attitudes, there was a sexual revolution.

In January, 1973, Britain finally became a full member of the European Economic Community, which was established by the Treaty of-Rome in 1957 and was still called the Common Market in 1973. The French President, General de Gaulle, had twice vetoed Britain's application for membership because he believed that Britain was too closely involved with the United States to make a satisfacto­ry member of the European Economic Community. An oil embargo and a miners' strike provoked a State of Emergency in the winter of 1973 and brought down Edward Heath's Conservative Government in 1974. The optimism of the 1960s disappeared. Rising oil prices pushed up the cost of living, unemployment was rising and an IRA bombing campaign brought home the seriousness of the situation in Northern Ireland. Oil was discovered in the North Sea, but the revenues from oil did not create an economic miracle. The 1970s al­so saw the growth of nationalism in Wales and Scotland. Wales got its own television and radio channels in Welsh and the language was introduced into schools. In Scotland the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) grew in strength. In national e'ections it overtook the Con­servatives and began to threaten the Labour Party.

The election of 1979 returned the Conservative Party to power and Margaret Thatcher became the first woman prime minister in Britain. For many the 1980s was a decade of increased prosperity. Mrs Thatcher firmly believed in self-reliance and what has come to be known as privatization. Her policies are popularly referred to as Thatcherism. It included the return to private ownership of state-owned industries, the use of monetarist policies (the supply of money in Britain) to control inflation, the weakening of trade u­nions, the strengthening of the role of market forces in the econo­my, and an emphasis on law and order. Several cases of privatiza­tion took place in Britain in the 1980s, including British Telecom and British Gas.

In 1982 the Falkland Islands War broke out. The Falkiand Is­lands, a group of islands totalling 4,700 square miles in the South Atlantic, have been a crown colony since 1892. Possession is dis­puted with Argentina. In 1982 the .Argentineans seized these is­lands but Britain fought successfully to regain them. Although the British victory was immensely expensive, Mrs Thatcher's personal popularity was dramatically revived. In the general election of 1983 she won another victory for the Conservatives, the most decisive for fcrty.years. In the late 1980s the economy was growing rapidly, unemployment was declining, and the Conservatives held a solid majority in the House of Commons.

Although twice re-elected, Mrs Thatcher was finally removed in November, 1990, not by the electorate, but by her own party. This was because of her opposition to European union and her impo­sition of an extremely unpopular flatrate "poll tax" in place of pro­perty taxes to pay for local government services. She was succeeded by the comparatively little known John Major.

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The harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I had left Germany embittered and unstable. With the coming to power of
Adolf Hitler and Nazism in Germany (1933), the Versailles ar­rangements began to crumble. Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936. He occupied Austria in March, 1938 and by the Munich A­greement (Sept. 1938) was given the Sudetenland. In March, 1939 he occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia, and on August 23 signed a nonaggression pact with USSR. The German troops invad­ed Poland on September 1, 1939. Chamberlain, who found that his policy of appeasement of German aggression was no longer ten­able, was forced to declare war on Germany on September 3.Chamberlain was not the man to lead his country in such a crisis; Winston Churchill, his First Lord of the Admiralty, took over as Prime Minister in 1940. Although Britain's island status protected it from invasion, the civilians were involved in the war in a way that had never happened before. German bombing raids destroyed many cities, of which Coventry was the worst hit. The Blitz radi­cally changed the face of London for the first time since the Great Fire nearly 3 centuries earlier. Many London families spent their nights in the underground stations. A lot of people from cities and industrial areas were evacuated to the countryside during the worst of the Blitz. Sir Winston Chuichill received massive popular support as a war leader and led his country to final victory in 1945.Britain suffered far fewer military casualties in the Second World War than in the First, Some 250, 000 were killed, with a further 110, 000 dead from Empire and Commonwealth forces. Britain, having devoted her entire strength to the war, was left gravely im­poverished. She lost one-quarter of her national wealth and entered upon a period of economic and financial difficulties.

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The First World War had great effects on British society. Men who had fought in France and been promised a "land fit for heroes" were disillusioned when they found unemployment and poor housing awaited them at the war's end. Women who had worked in facto­ries while the men were away were not prepared to give up any of their independence. The postwar boom was over within two years. By 1921 there were over two million unemployed. There were strikes and hunger marches. Political unrest led to four general elec­ tions in just over five years, including one which brought the Labour Party to power for the first time (1924). In 1926 a general strike paralyzed the country. The strike was called in support of the miners who, after its failure, were forced by hunger to return to work with longer hours and lower wages even than before. Yet, outside the mining districts, the strike seemed to have improved re­lations between the workers and the middle classes.

For those who were not affected by gloomy financial reality, the 1920s were the Roaring Twenties. Women with cropped hair and short dresses drank cocktails and danced to the new music, jazz, which had crossed the ocean from America. Silent films, another American import, were the wonder of the age.

The effects of the New York Stock Market crash of 1929 soon spread throughout Europe and by 1931 Britain was entering the Great Depression. The industrial areas of northern England, south Wales, and Clydeside in Scotland were the worst hit by the depres­ sion. About 3 million people were unemployed and had to rely on the "dole", a limited state benefit, to keep them from starvation. In the south of England and the Midlands, the depression hit less hard and recovery was faster, mainly due to the rapid growth of the motor, electrical and light engineering industries. Indeed by the middle of the decade people were. told by Neville Chamberlain, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 'that we have recovered in this coun­ try 80 percent of our prosperity".

In 1936 Edward I succeeded his father George V but abdicated, after a reign of 10 months, in order to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American. He married Mrs. Simpson in 1937 and thereafter lived mainly in France. He was made Duke of Windsor and governor of the Bahamas (1940-45). Edward's brother came to the throne and became George VI.

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Although life in the years before the First World War was not sat­ isfactory for many people, yet reforms continued to come year by year. Factory acts made further improvements in conditions of work; housing acts got rid of some of the worst slums, and educa­ tion acts brought free schools and free school meals to poor children.

Women's position in society was gradually improved. Thanks to the militant feminist movement of the Suffragettes led by Mrs. Pankhurst before the First World War, votes were granted to wom­ en over 30 as soon as the war was over and to all women in the same terms as men ten years later.

In 1905 a general election brought the Liberals back to power un­der Sir Henry Camphell-Bannerman. The Liberal government car­ ried out some reforms. More slums were cleared and towns re- planned; labour exchanges were established and minimum wages fixed in certain industries; pensions were paid to the old; and unions were granted protection from liability for losses caused by strikes.

In 1911 the Parliament Act was passed, severely limiting the powers of the Lords and establishing the Commons as the supreme legislative body. In that same year a National Insurance Act provid­ ed insurance against sickness and unemployment. Members of Par­ liament were granted an annual salary of £400; and maternity grants were established.

The problem of Ireland remained unsolved. In 1914 a Home Rule Bill was passed, setting up an Irish Parliament with limited powers. But its application was delayed until after the First World War.

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English colonial expansion began with the colonization of New­foundland in 1583. En the early 18th century, settlements were made in North America, while commercial companies were char­tered to trade with other lands, notably the British East India Com­pany in India. Encouraged by Britain's control of the seas, the dis­coveries of men like Captain Cook, and especially by the rising tide of emigration, the British colonialists stepped up their expansion in the late 18th century and the early 19th century.

1. The growth of dominions

In the late 18th century Britain acquired vast, underpopulated territories: Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

After the Seven Years' War (1756-63) between Britain and France, Canada was ceded to Britain by the 1763 Treaty of Paris. French rights were guaranteed by the Quebec Act of 1774. Then the Canada Act of 1791 divided Canada into Upper Canada ($Jntari­o) where the British had settled, and Lower Canada (Quebec) populated by the French. Only one serious revolt against British rule took place in 1837-38. The British North America Act of 1867 established Canada as a dominion. The four founding provinces were Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. The others entered later.

Australia was first discovered by the Dutch in the early 1600s. Captain James Cook discovered Botany Bay and claimed the east
coast region for Britain, naming it New South Wales (1770). The English began to transport convicts to Australia in 1788. Free set­tlement began in 1816, and flQ convicts were sent to Australia after 1840. The gold rushes (1851-1892) brought more people to Aus‑tralia, and in 1901 the six self-governing colonies were united in one dominion—the independent Commonwealth of Australia.

New Zealand was settled by Maoris in about the 14th century. New Zealand was sighted by the Dutch seaman Abel Tasman in 1642, and named for the Netherlands province of Zeeland. In the 1770s Captain James Cook visited New Zealand and claimed it for England. Missionaries became active in the early 19th century, and systematic colonization.was begun in 1840 by the New Zealand Com­pany. Britain drew up the Treaty of Waitangi (1840) with the Maori chiefs, and made the country a separate colony (1841). It achieved self-government in 1852, became a dominion under the British crown in 1907, and was made completely independent in 1931.

2.The Conquest of India

The establishment of the British East India Company in 1600 was a case of economic penetration. The company took control of areas and as a result the British government became directly involved in Indian affairs The India Act of 1784 set up a "Board of Control" to supervise the Company. Political instability and French interfer­ence prompted further intervention. By 1819 the British conquest of India was almost complete. In 1857 the native troops of the Bengal army of the East India Company mutinied because of (1) resent­ment at the reforms of ancient Indian institutions carried out by the British; (2) fear of forcible conversion to Christianity; and (3) the issue of cartridges greased with cow-fat, which offended Hindus, or pig-fat, which offended Muslims. After the mutiny, the control of India passed to the British Crown in 1858, and Queen Victoria became Empress of India in 1877.

3. The Scramble for Africa

The• Dutch East India Company established a settlement at Cape Town in 1652. Settlement extended inland to form Cape Colony in the 18th century. Britain took the colony i 1806. to protect its route to India, an act officially recognized by the Netherlands in 1814. Increasing numbers of British settlers arrived in the 1820s, and to escape British dominati the Boers moved northward in the Great Trek (mass migration, 1835-36) to Natal, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Britain took Natal in 1843 but recog­nized the independence of the Transvaal in 1852 and the Orange Free State in 1854. Relations between the British colony and the Boer republics became worse, especially when Britain took (1871) Griqualand, an area of the Orange Free State where diamonds had been discovered. An attempt to take the Transvaal (1877) resulted in war between Britain and the Boers (1880-81) in which Britain was defeated, and the Transvaal's independence was recognized. But the discovery (1866) of gold at Witwatersrand brought many new immigrants, known as Uitlanders, to the Transvaal. Presi­dent of Transvaal's refusal to give them the right to vote and the Jarneson Raid (1895) resulted in the Boer War (1899-1902). Al­ter the British victory, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State be­came British colonies (1902) and were united with Cape Province and Natal to form the Union of South Africa (1910).

At the beginning of the 19th century British possessions were con­fined to forts and slave trading posts on the West coast. Over the 19th century the interior of Africa was gradually discovered and col‑onized by Europeans. By 1900 more than 9/10 had been colonized. Britain led the way in this race to take over the fertile and productive areas of Africa, but France, Portugal, Belgium, Germany and Italy all claimed a share. In 1885 in Berlin they even signed a treaty which laid down rules by which the"scramble"was tobe conducted. Apart from the colonies in the South and West, which continued to expand at this time, Britain was also involved in the North East in Egypt and the Sudan. In Egypt the French influence had been strong ever since the French engineers built the Suez Canal, and the French owned half the shares in the Canal Company. British interest in this region grew after 1875 when the British government bought almost all the remaining Canal shares from the bankrupt Egyptian ruler, Khedive Ismail. Ismail s abdication (1879) was followed by a revolt (1882) . This was crushed by the British, who occupied Egypt( 1882­1914) Egypt invaded the Sudan in 1821. The nationalist Mandi led a revolt in 1881, after which a series of campaigns resulted in joint Anglo-Egyptian rule in 1899.

4. Aggression against Chine

Britain, France and Germany were also rivals in establishing trading posts and naval stations in the Far East. In the 1 830s British merchants began to smuggle opium into China from India. Although China had banned the opium trade in 1799, the British merchants still made enormous profits from it. In 1839 the Chi­nese, led by Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu, confiscated about 20,000 chests of opium and burnt them at Canton. The British colonialists, seeking to force China to open ports and end her re­strictions on foreign trade, used this as a pretext and launched a war of aggression against China in 1840. The British troops occupied Hong Kong in 1841, and the fall of Zhenjiang in 1842 threatened Beijing itself. By the Treaty of Nanking (Nanjing) (1842) China ceded Hong Kong to Britain and opened five ports of Xiamen, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Ningpo and Shanghai to British trade. Britain 'was to receive over £ 6 million war indemnity. A second war (1856-58) ended with the treaties of Tianjin (1858), towhich France, Russia and the US were opened 11 more ports.By 1900 Britain had built up a big empire,never set". It consisted of a vast number of protectorates, Crown Colonies, spheres of influence, and self-governing dominions; and it included 25% of the world's population and area.

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As the new working class became established in the industrial towns in the late 18th century, they became aware of the power which "they could possess if they acted together instead of separately. So various working class organizations such as friendly societies and mutual insurance companies were formed to bring about improve­ ments in their standards of living. However, the movements were regarded with suspicion by the government as possible centers of revolution, especially after the French Revolution of 1789-93. Con­sequently Parliament passed the Combination Acts of 1799-1800 to forbid the formation of unions. These laws were repealed in 1824. As a result the 1825 Act allowed workers to form unions but not to obstruct workers and employers. It was now difficult to strike with­ out court action following.

     Most early trade unions were small and local. It wasn't until after 1825 that large unions began to combine workers in different parts of the country. In October, 1833 the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union (GNCTU) was established. This attempt to form a national union came to nothing after the trial and transportation of six Dorsetshire agricultural labourers ("Tolpuddle Martyrs") in 1834 on the charge of administering false oaths.

     For 30 years'industrial relationships remained stormy, but until 1850 working class energies were taken up with other movements such as the Chartist Movement &id the Anti-Corn Law League. A new kind of trade unionism developed among skilled workers, such as the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE). The members of the ASE paid one shilling per week at a time when most earned less than one pound per week. In return the ASE offered benefits simi­ lar to those of friendly societies (1. e. benefits for sickness, unem­ ployment or old age). The ASE was the model for other national craft unions formed in the 185Os and 1860s among boilermakers, carpnters, bricklayers and other skilled building workers. An im­ portant part of the work of these new unions was restriction of entry to their trades. These new model unions tried to avoid confronti­ tions with employers as far as possible. The New Unionism was not favoured by all workers. The lower paid were still outside it and re­ mained largely unorganized. In the 1860s trade unionists began to meet regularly to discuss matters of common interest (e. g. regula­ tion of hours, technical education and conditions of appren­ticeship). In 1868 the Trades Union Congress (TUC) was start­ ed; thus began a new phase in which track unionism had a national organization capable of coordinating the interests of industrial work­ers.

Trade unions had always lacked legal rights. They had to fight two strong opponents together—employers and the^. State. Influ­ enced by the 1867 Royal Commission, the Liberal Government passed two new laws, which gave the movement new legal security. The Trade Union Act of 1871 legalized the trade unions and gave fi­ nancial security. It meant that in law there was no difference be­ tween collecting money for benefit purposes and collecting it to sup­ port strike action. The Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act of 1876 gave unions the right to exist as corporation, able to own property and to defend their rights corporatively (i. e. not as mere collections of individuals) in courts of law. Two important develop­ ments followed in the last 20 years of the 19th century; the growth of unions where they were most needed, among unskilled workers; and the formation of a political party, the Labour Party.

The Labour Party had its origins in the Independent Labour Party (ILP), which was formed in January, 1893 and led by Keir Hardie, a Scottish miner. The Independent Labour Party was too idealistic and its leaders too individualistic ever to become a mass party. The foundation of an effective party for labour would depend on the trade unions. When in 1899 Hardie and the ILP urged the English and Scottish TUCs to endorse the idea of "united political action," the TUCs acted. In 1900, representatives of trade u­ nions, the ILP, and a number of small socialist societies set up the Labour Representation Committee (LRC). The aim of the LRC was simply to promote in Parliament the interests of labour. The LRC changed its name to the Labour Party in time for the general election which was called for 1906. The Labour Party participated (1915-18) in the war coalition government, became the main op­ position party (1922), and formed minority governments (1924 and 1929-31) under MacDonald.

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